Google +1 for Web Publishers

Peter Prestipino

Posted on 5.31.2011

Google formally released the +1 button today. This “social recommendation” and “annotation” feature is a new area for Google and in turn for consumers, publishers and of course advertisers (more on that later) so Website Magazine will be watching development closely in the next few week.

Google partnered with several sites including Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Reuters, Nordstrom and others (including social sharing tool AddThis) to display the +1 feature today. Google will deploy the +1 button on Google properties such as the Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube in the coming days.

Get Started with Google +1
To deploy the feature on your Web property, visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central. You will be able to configure a small snippet of JavaScript and integrate it where you want it to appear. Several button sizes and styles are available.

So what’s so important about +1? According to the official Google announcement, “By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search results and search ads could show up with +1 annotations more often, helping users see when your pages are most likely to be useful.” Google is once again playing to its strengths – webmasters (and Web professionals) – to make the +1 button a mainstay on websites that rely on both its organic and paid traffic. Whether it can compete in a landscape full with social services is something only time will tell.

Website Magazine will be covering the +1 annotation feature in greater detail in the coming days an in future issues of the print publication.